Fresh from a summer projecting himself as one of Europe’s finest playmakers, the loss of Dani Olmo may well have sparked concern at RB Leipzig.
Instead, the Bundesliga club celebrated the transfer as confirmation of a philosophy that has seen them emerge as the go-to destination for young talent.
Olmo’s departure in a £51m deal for La Liga giants Barcelona followed a victorious Euro 2024 campaign with Spain, in which he finished as joint top-scorer and came on the back of four promising years at club level in Leipzig, having joined the club from Dinamo Zagreb.
He joins a stellar list of names to have been recruited by the club, or the wider Red Bull model, developed and sold on for healthy profit.
It is the fourth time in two years Leipzig have banked more than £50m on a player, with midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai joining Liverpool, forward Christopher Nkunku moving to Chelsea and defender Josko Gvardiol signing for Manchester City – the club’s record sale at £77m.
For Marcel Schafer – the RB Leipzig managing director of sport who joined from Wolfsburg in the summer – the sale of Olmo, along with that of 24-year-old defender Mohamed Simakan to Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr for £29m, presented an opportunity rather than a setback.
In came highly-touted 19-year-old winger Antonio Nusa, teenage midfield prospects Assan Ouedraogo and Arthur Vermeeren, initially on loan, 22-year-old goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt and 24-year-old defender Lutsharel Geertruida – all for a combined £30m less than this summer’s sales.
“My feeling after the first transfer window was the players definitely want to come to Leipzig because they saw so many examples in the past,” explains Schafer.
“It is not only Dani Olmo, it is Josko Gvardiol, it is Szoboszlai, it is Nkunku, and so many more examples.
“They see exactly that this club has a huge potential, is a perfect club, not only in Germany, but in the whole of Europe for young, top talents.”
It is not that Leipzig merely want to develop talented players to then sell them, they believe their methods can be – and have been – successful.
The club have won the German Cup twice, reached the Champions League semi-finals and will kick off their sixth successive campaign in the competition at Atletico Madrid on Thursday.
Quickly scaling the German football pyramid following Red Bull’s takeover in 2009, they have only finished outside the top four once in eight Bundesliga seasons and twice ended as runners-up.
“We are confirming it every single summer in every transfer window, we are the perfect club for young players, to help them for a certain time in their career and then to bring them to absolutely top clubs,” says Schafer.
“Because we are realistic, we have huge potential, we are all convinced here that we have the possibility to compete with very, very good teams in all our competitions. But there are maybe 10 more clubs in Europe, we know they are maybe above us.
“But this is exactly our strategy, our philosophy. So, for example, Dani Olmo – everyone here at the club was very happy that Dani made the step because it helps us to get the next young, top, top talents.”
Other top sales include Naby Keita, Ibrahima Konate and Dayot Upamecano to Liverpool and Bayern Munich, who like Szoboszlai joined from Red Bull Salzburg.
There is an argument that were Leipzig able to hang on to their top talents they could field an incredibly strong team, but there are no plans to change strategy.
“Sometimes you need to consider the view of a player,” adds Schafer. “If you keep a player or block a player when he has a chance to go to Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, is he still the same player in the next year? Does he still have the same mindset?
“If a player wants to leave, if the economic part is OK for all the parties, you definitely need to consider it as a club like Leipzig because we always want young and hungry players.
“We don’t think it’s only, ‘we need to keep all the players for five to 10 years and we’ll win everything’ – we don’t think like that.”
Simons and Sesko a signal of intent
RB Leipzig did retain two of the most promising 21-year-olds in European football in Netherlands international Xavi Simons and Slovenia forward Benjamin Sesko.
Simons returned on loan for another season from Paris St-Germain, with Schafer calling him “one of the best players in Europe” last summer and “an amazing signal for everyone that we as a club achieved the next level”.
“He was very clear about his personal career plan, he wants to be a key player, he wants to be a leader, to do for him the next step,” adds the 40-year-old. “And afterwards, everything is possible for him.
“He definitely embodies what we as a club are – no limits, we can reach everything.
“About next summer, it is difficult to say. But of course, it is our goal not only to sell all the best players, even to keep our best players.”
Sesko, meanwhile, scored 18 goals last season after arriving from Salzburg and signed a new deal in June amid reported interest from Arsenal.
“He is in my opinion a complete striker,” says Schafer. “He is tall, he is quick, he has a good header. Left and right foot, he is good in shooting. We need to work with him a little bit on his first touch. That is something there is space for potential.
“He has everything a top striker in the world needs. He has a good mindset but he needs to keep it, he needs to keep the hunger, he needs to keep the focus to work very hard, before training sessions, after training sessions, to keep in focus his health, his body and everything else.
“He has everything and we want to help him to achieve exactly this level his potential is.”
Naturally, other clubs have tried to implement similar recruitment models, but Schafer believes Leipzig’s record keeps them ahead of the curve.
“You will not find many clubs who produced or developed more top talents than Leipzig and other Red Bull clubs,” adds the former Germany international.
“So I think still we have a good advantage. But we always need to be careful, of course, we always need to invest in the team around the team, we always need to invest in our infrastructure.”
Ralf Rangnick was the architect of Leipzig’s rise, his thirst for innovative ideas matching Red Bull’s, and Schafer says the club’s impressive facilities provide the platform for the young prospects they recruit to reach their potential.
“For me, the most important part if you want to work and develop young players every single day, you need a very good infrastructure, we have it – the pitches, the training facilities, it is really on a high standard,” he explains.
“The second most important part is you need a good coaching staff, we have a very good head coach with Marco Rose.
“All the people around the team, that means our medical staff, our athletic team, even the cooks who prepare meals, the best way to handle nutrition etc.
“We have experts around the players to help them every single day to become a better player, on and off the pitch.”
Perhaps surprisingly, one area Leipzig have struggled is producing their own young players via the club’s academy.
The aim is to change that and the emergence of Viggo Gebel, a 16-year-old midfielder born in Leipzig who made his debut this season, is seen as a positive.
“He is a good example of how we can handle the future, but we have to be honest with ourselves,” says Schafer.
“We invested a lot, we worked a lot in the academy, but the most important thing is not a championship or winning games – this is just a part of developing a winning mentality.
“This is somewhere we have huge potential and everybody has to focus a little bit more on it. It is definitely our goal to bring some players from our Leipzig academy into our first team, not only bringing young, hungry, high-potential players from outside to Leipzig.”